In the grays of winter, the last stop on any subway line can have a
lonely, ominous feel. But when the new $530 million South Ferry station,
the terminus of the No. 1 train, opens in January, it will have some
added luminosity, thanks to a site-specific installation by the artists
Doug and Mike Starn. Commissioned by the Arts for Transit program of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
the installation, “See It Split, See It Change,” includes curved
floor-to-ceiling glass walls laced with silhouettes of trees, a marble
mosaic of a vintage topographic map of Manhattan, and other imagery
drawn from nearby Battery Park.

Although it is the first public artwork by the Starns, 47-year-old
identical twins who work in Brooklyn, they view it as integral to a
continuing project, “Structure of Thought,” rooted in their
preoccupation with time and natural bonds. “The tree series goes back
about 10 years,” Doug Starn said on a tour of the station last week.
“It’s about —— ”

“It’s about the conveyance of something,” Mike
Starn said. The brothers finish each other’s sentences as a matter of
course. “We saw the subway system as a conveyance, where connections are
made.”

“Tubes and things,” his brother added.

The work at
South Ferry, more than three years in the planning and execution, is
among the largest Arts for Transit has ever undertaken. And at more than
$1 million, it is the most expensive to date, said Sandra Bloodworth,
the program’s director, who said she hoped it would also be among the
most durable.

“We believe in building it for it to be there
forever, without any intervention by man,” Ms. Bloodworth said. The
South Ferry terminal, which is entirely new, was built beneath the
existing 103-year-old South Ferry station and financed mostly by the
federal government as part of a broader effort to rebuild Lower
Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks.

October 28, 2012

The choice is clear. The Romney-Ryan ticket
represents a constricted and backward-looking vision of America: the
privatization of the public good. In contrast, the sort of public
investment championed by Obama—and exemplified by both the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care Act—takes to heart
the old civil-rights motto “Lifting as we climb.” That effort cannot,
by itself, reverse the rise of inequality that has been under way for at
least three decades. But we’ve already seen the future that Romney
represents, and it doesn’t work.

The reëlection of Barack Obama is
a matter of great urgency. Not only are we in broad agreement with his
policy directions; we also see in him what is absent in Mitt Romney—a
first-rate political temperament and a deep sense of fairness and
integrity. A two-term Obama Administration will leave an enduringly
positive imprint on political life. It will bolster the ideal of good
governance and a social vision that tempers individualism with a concern
for community. Every Presidential election involves a contest over the
idea of America. Obama’s America—one that progresses, however
falteringly, toward social justice, tolerance, and equality—represents
the future that this country deserves.

This investigation was supported by the Investigative Fund at the
Nation Institute and by the Puffin Foundation. Elements of it appear in
Palast’s new book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps (Seven Stories). Research assistance by Zach D. Roberts, Ari Paul, Nader Atassi and Eric Wuestewald.

Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the
campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in
September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney’s
November 2008 New York Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”
But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that
he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the
bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made
more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were
astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment.

It all starts with Delphi Automotive, a former General Motors
subsidiary whose auto parts remain essential to GM’s production lines.
No bailout of GM—or Chrysler, for that matter—could have been successful
without saving Delphi. So, in addition to making massive loans to
automakers in 2009, the federal government sent, directly or indirectly,
more than $12.9 billion to Delphi—and to the hedge funds that had
gained control over it.

One of the hedge funds profiting from that bailout— $1.28 billion so
far—is Elliott Management, directed by Paul Singer. According to TheWall Street Journal,
Singer has given more to support GOP candidates—$2.3 million—than
anyone else on Wall Street this election season. His personal giving is
matched by that of his colleagues at Elliott; collectively, they have
donated $3.4 million to help elect Republicans this season, while giving
only $1,650 to Democrats. And Singer is influential with the GOP
presidential candidate; he’s not only an informal adviser but, according
to the Journal, his support was critical in helping push Representative Paul Ryan onto the ticket.

Singer, whom Fortune magazine calls a “passionate defender
of the 1%,” has carved out a specialty investing in distressed firms and
distressed nations, which he does by buying up their debt for pennies
on the dollar and then demanding payment in full. This so-called
“vulture investor” received $58 million on Peruvian debt that he snapped
up for $11.4 million, and $90 million on Congolese debt that he bought
for a mere $20 million. In the process, he’s built one of the largest
private equity firms in the nation, and over decades he’s racked up an
unusually high average return on investments of 14 percent.

Other GOP presidential hopefuls chased Singer’s endorsement, but Mitt
chased Singer with his own checkbook, investing at least $1 million
with Elliott through Ann Romney’s blind trust (it could be far more, but
the Romneys have declined to disclose exactly how much). Along the way,
Singer gained a reputation, according to Fortune, “for strong-arming his way to profit.” That is certainly what happened at Delphi.

We turn now to a major new
exposé on the cover of The Nation magazine called "Mitt Romney’s Bailout
Bonanza: How He Made Millions from the Rescue of Detroit."
Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican presidential
nominee Mitt Romney made some $15 million on the auto bailout and that
three of Romney’s top donors made more than $4 billion for their hedge
funds from the bailout. Palast’s report is part of a film-in-progress
called "Romney’s Bailout Bonanza." Palast is the author of several
books, including recently released New York Times bestseller,
"Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy
Steps." [includes rush transcript]

Greg Palast, investigative reporter who has tracked Romney’s "vulture" fund partners for five years for BBC Television’s Newsnight. He is the author of the recently released New York Times bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps. His new Nation
exposé is called "Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza: How Mitt and Ann Made
Millions — and Mitt’s Hedge Fund Donors Made Billions — from the
Auto-Industry Rescue that He Condemned."